Can antidepressants be used to treat premature ejaculation?

Antidepressant medications called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) can be used to help treat premature ejaculation (PE). These drugs work by balancing your levels of serotonin and dopamine, two neurotransmitters (chemical messengers) that help regulate the ejaculation process. Serotonin raises your ejaculatory threshold and postpones ejaculation and orgasm, while dopamine decreases the ejaculatory threshold and triggers ejaculation. Research shows that serotonin levels are lower in men with PE.

By increasing serotonin, SSRIs can also increase your ejaculatory threshold and your intravaginal ejaculatory latency time (IELT), the length of time you can last during intercourse before ejaculating. Although the results aren’t always stunning -- the drugs typically double your IELT, which may only be a matter of seconds for some guys -- SSRIs are worth considering if you’re dealing with PE.

A class of antidepressant drugs called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors or SSRIs increases levels of serotonin (a chemical messenger that appears to be involved in premature ejaculation (PE). Because higher amounts of serotonin can increase ejaculatory threshold they are sometimes prescribed off-label by doctors to treat PE.